The epistemological beliefs of teacher-credential students were studied to determine if their beliefs change in sophistication after a semester of training. Also studied was the extent of the relationship between academic and home background variables and epistemological beliefs. A convenience sample of 52 white females in their fifth year of…

This report discusses the outcomes of a practicum designed to address the lack of parent participation in American Sign Language (ASL) training by parents of children with hearing impairments. Using a pretest-posttest design, 46 parents of children who are deaf and receive services from a school for the deaf were surveyed. Based on the needs…

This paper focuses on Michael, one of four seventh grade students who participated in a study involving a constructivist teaching experiment. In the study, manipulatives within a computer microworld were used to solve fractional reasoning tasks and tasks that involved concepts of rate, ratio, and proportionality. Pretest results are presented, and…

In the fall of 2000, the educator/author of this paper volunteered to teach the first completely online geography course at California State University Long Beach (CSULB), an introductory physical geography section. In spring 2001, she offered one section of the class online and another in the traditional lecture/lab format and decided to do a…

North Carolina's Kinder Camp is a 4-week program designed to prepare children for entry into kindergarten. All participants must have completed Project Family Read. A North Carolina elementary school measured the programs effectiveness by using the Cognitive/Language Profile of the American Guidance Service Early Screening Profiles as a pre- and…

Developed specifically for classroom teachers with a limited background in music, oral music lessons are designed to be taught in short, daily instruction segments to help students gain the most from music and transfer that knowledge to other parts of the curriculum. The lessons, a master degree project, were developed to support the Utah music…

This study compared the effects of three forms of online instruction on memory, belief change, and argumentation skill. Reading of a pro/con text was followed by: (1) online discussion in pairs compared to reading of the same text followed by two forms of individualized study techniques derived from the cognitive memory literature; (2)…

In spring 1996 Franklin County (KY) schools conducted a research project with three teachers at Western Hills High School to determine whether student attitudes change as a result of becoming involved in service learning. Each teacher used one class for a test group and another for a control group. Two types of pre- and posttests were given to…

In computerized adaptive testing (CAT), new or experimental items are frequently administered alongside operational tests to gather the pretest data needed to replenish and replace item pools. The two basic strategies used to combine pretest and operational items are embedding and appending. Variable-length CATs are preferred because of the…

This paper describes the possible effects of feedback on learning (associations) using a connectionist tool, the delta rule. Feedback in instruction can be described in terms of the interaction of stimulus inputs and response outputs, an associationist perspective. Here the delta rule is applied to each instance that an input and an output likely…

A pretest posttest experimental group design was used to study the effects that computer assisted instruction (CAI) has on urban school, tenth grade students' achievement in global studies. Students were selected and assigned to one of two groups using random selection and assignment techniques. A pretest confirmed the equivalence of the two…

Based on the view that positive peer relationships help children function successfully at school, this study examined how teachers can help rejected, aggressive, or controversial children build social skills in a small group setting. Participating were three kindergarten students at a rural Alaskan elementary school, selected because they…

McDougal, Littell and Company has designed the geography program called "Daily Geography" which incorporates geography into the daily social studies curriculum. "Daily Geography" aims to increase students' knowledge and understanding of the physical aspects of geography. A study tested the "Daily Geography" program to…

Although a national consensus has emerged regarding the importance of extending publicly-funded health insurance coverage to low-income children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Medicaid, substantial numbers of eligible children remain uninsured. This study examined whether extending insurance coverage to low-income…

The purpose of this research was to demonstrate that an audiotape desensitization treatment procedure, administered over a 19-day period, would be an effective means of treating test-taking anxiety. Subjects were students seeking treatment from a university counseling center. Results indicated that the treated subjects showed significant…